This book has the standard outline of the Concord "Armor At War Series". It is 73 pages long with approximately 150 photos and 16 color illustrations. The photos are good and the subtitles are informative, depicting German and Russian examples of armor on the Russian Front, including several of American Shermans lend-leased to the Soviets.

If you're a great interest in the Russian armor,this book is for you, these covers all the tanks use by the Russian army during their 10 years fighting with the Afghans guerillias,this book focus mainly on pictures and some informations on the tanks. but it's worth.

Although small (72 pages), this work provides the reader with a glimpse into the Armourer's trade. Illustrated with 40 color and 40 black and white photographs and drawings, it allows the reader to visualize the splendor of the era. For the price, a great book...

Arms and Armour of the Greeks is a wonderful work of scholarship, combining sometimes-scarce archaeological evidence with historical texts and ancient artwork to provide a compelling chronology of the arms of the ancient Aegean. Intended mainly for college students and other scholars, Snodgrass has nonetheless presented the information in such a fashion as to make it good reading for the interested layman. He begins with an introduction to the difficulties encountered in researching and writing on this topic, such as the dearth of direct evidence, not to mention the problems associated with accurately identifying what little there is. He then launches into a brief discussion of the archaeological methods used in the study of the subject, from excavation to correlation with ancient texts. Snodgrass has organized the book usefully and logically, flowing chronologically from the Mycenaeans in the sixteenth century BCE through the Hellenistic Period of Alexander the Great and his successors 1200 years later. Chapter One starts off with the excavations of the Shaft Graves at Mycenae, and the rich finds discovered there by Schliemann (15). This sets up a recurring theme in the book, as much of the archaeological evidence seems to be excavated from the graves of warriors, especially the nobles. He then takes the reader to the rest of the Aegean a century or so later, still at the height of Mycenaean power. This includes an interesting discussion on the relationship and influence of the Cretans and the people of the mainland. This is where Snodgrass comes into his own, using ancient texts and artwork to try and get a glimpse of the equipment in use at the time. Quotes from the Iliad lend a sense of continuity to the discussions, as they are included in several places throughout the book. After the fall of the Mycenaean civilization, there was a period known as The Dark Age (35). Snodgrass notes that there are no examples of the art of writing from approximately 1200 to 750 BCE (35). He qualifies this, however, by saying that, although finished later in the eighth century, the Homeric Epics, the Iliad and Odyssey, incorporate many earlier elements (35). Snodgrass here brings up the argument over how historically accurate the Iliad is, stating that although much of the armor and weapons may be described with less than complete accuracy, there is some consistency. This is demonstrated by the statement, "In Homer, swords and spearheads are without exception said to be of bronze when the metal is specified" (37). While his descriptions of the weapons and armor, some coming from direct evidence, others educated speculation, are informative, they tend to be a little dry. An interesting aside, however, are his ongoing discussions of the importance of the bow, from its popularity on Crete to the Classical Athenian' and Spartan's almost total deprecation and avoidance of this useful weapon. Snodgrass now comes to the age of the hoplite, the foot soldier that will dominate Mediterranean warfare for over 300 years (49). This comprises not only his (the hoplites') panoply, or complete set of armor and weapons, but also the strategies and tactics that made him so successful. There is a large amount of space in this section, Chapter 3, dedicated to the depiction, on vases and sculpture, of the Homeric heroes in full or partial hoplite panoply. This helps to show how these heroes of the Trojan War were thought of not just as archaic characters in a story, but as contemporaries and models for the modern warrior. The author also includes a short definition of the phalanx, or tightly packed square of massed infantry (49), although he goes into greater depth on this formation later in the book. Also in this chapter, we are also treated to a discussion of the other types of soldiers in use at this time. These included light infantry and cavalry, most of whom seem to have been be mercenaries or, in the case of light infantry, those citizens too poor to afford hoplite armor (77). The rest of the book continues the discussion on the hoplite, and the evolution of his arms, armor, and tactics through the centuries. The book concludes with a discussion of the phalanx and cavalry charge as used by Philip of Macedon and his son, Alexander the Great. Overall, Arms and Armour of the Greeks is an enjoyable and informative work. It is at times a little slow in its development, but Snodgrass has made it entertaining enough to be read for its own sake, without making it seem either immature or unnecessarily heavy.

Although this book specifically catalogues the armor collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art -- issued to commemorate the Museum's splendid renovation of its legendary Armor Court -- this is a fine, intelligent, and comprehensive overview for anyone interested in how arms and armor were made, used, and venerated from the Middle Ages through the Baroque period.

The only reservation I have about this book is the author's curious reluctance to fully acknowledge the real purpose of these items. Yes, arms and armor can be beautiful -- and the examples provided here surely are -- but it cannot be forgotten that they are at their core instruments of war, meant to kill, maim, or at the very least, intimidate. This book implies that arms and armor are merely fashion statements, much as we venerate the clothing designs of Versace, Armani, Ralph Lauren, Geoffrey Beene, etc. today. It's pretty to think so, but an overly romanticized viewpoint.

This reservation, however, is not enough to prevent me from highly recommending this book.

Some one must have liked this book. I have the 1870 edition. The author is really M. P. Lacombe with Boutell's translation. An excellent overview of the development of weapons and armor from the first stone weapons to the the early hand cannons and black powder

Clever title, excellent research, well written and useful. I highly recommend this book for any military professional, political scientist, or defense industry representative interested in how the military services deal with Congress. The author helpfully provides specific examples of the ways in which military culture often clashes with the political culture of the Congress and how for the Army, their unique service culture makes it particularly difficult to aggressively advocate on behalf of soldiers and Army modernization.

Although the author has done a great favor for the Army by outlining the Army's past failures in getting their message across and by offering a blueprint for change, the service culture he has described argues that the Army is unlikely to make the changes needed. But for those who want to better understand why the Army often loses the Washington funding battles to the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, this book is invaluable.

This is a lavishly illustrated presentation of the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art's collection of arms and armour. The items range in date from the seventh to the nineteenth centuries AD. Particularly important are a group of belt fittings from the medieval period which convey the role of ceremony among the military classes of the Islamic world. Display was also a major factor behind the creation of the Collection`s two sets of elaborate horse trappings from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries AD, one of which contains a complete gold saddle. An impressive array of horse chanfrons of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries include the only known example from Sultanate India. Among the most dramatic items is a fifteenth-century steel war mask which still inspires a sense of awe. In avoiding the strictly typological classification of most previous catalogues of the subject, the aim is to give a full sense of the panoply of warfare: the stirrup, the drum, and the talismanic shirt were as important to the Muslim warrior as the sword and the mail shirt. David Alexander, the leading authority on Islamic arms and armour, has provided a detailed scholalrly guide to this outstanding collection. This book is intended for art historians and Islamicists, collectors and curators of Islamic art, specialist art trade, some students and general.

A great book full of good advice and good sense that can enable the layman to custom build his own home! Enzo Castelli, architect

If you are interested in chain mail, don't hesitate to buy this book! I purchased this as a gift for my husband and he loves it! Don't be put off by the fact that it is written for children, because this book is filled with information that adults could get into as well. You will find such things as the history of chain mail, photos of ancient chain mail, directions on how to make chain mail and even a time line for the era of chain mail and armor.